Arm servers have software problems

Tinbox maker Dell is experimenting with servers that use Arm chips but is finding that the software is not up to scratch.

According to PC World the architecture faces software issues that could stop it from being a viable alternative to x86. At the request of some of its bigger clients, Dell has been testing a few low-power servers with ARM processors, which have interesting attributes related to power and density in data centres.

Forrest Norrod, vice president and general manager of server platforms for Dell was quoted as saying he had major concerns about the weak software ecosystem surrounding ARM. He said that there are lots of advantages from the architecture even if it means porting your code over to that new instruction set and maintaining two different software stacks. But he said that there are time and cost issues associated with porting software from x86 to ARM.

Dell has a good sense of what the ARM ecosystem will look like for the next 12 to 18 months and has a cunning plan to release ARM-based servers.